Day J11

Caught up! (minus pictures)
Today, for class, we looked at various bookstores.
We started out with the Kinokuniya bookstore in Shinjuku Sanchoume. It was extensive and large, but as the layout and clientele went it was pretty run of the mill. Except for the front display. It included a large TV screen perpetually playing Michael Jackson's music videos. On the way to the next location, every last one of us had Thriller stuck in our heads.
We next were lead by Lennon-sensei (her mother, taking care of Leila, the eight month old daughter of Lennon-sensei, was also there for this portion) to an area which had a name that I do not remember, but it had older bookstores. That is, they sold older books. We split into small groups to explore. In the first shop we entered, there was a large collection of old Japanese books. I couldn't tell what all of them were, but it seemed as if a lot of them were about China, judging by the frequent use of 中 in the titles (中国 is china). Next, we found a place that sold foreign books from the early and mid 1900's. For you comic minded people, they had the first issue of Marvel's The Defenders. The next store specialized in old books about theater and art, specifically Noh. Next, a shop with an extensive collection of pop-culture stuff from the sixties and seventies, with Nirvana playing in the background.
Next was, once again, Akihabara. First was a standard bookstore. Then there was the Toranora stores. I was practically in heaven. I could tell I would love it from the second I saw the buildings. The right tower was draped in posters for series which I had seen and liked. There were three entire floors devoted to Touhou Project merchandise. I bought Touhou 12 and 12.3, for those of you who know what that is.
I then returned to the dorm to catch up on my blog.